Into the Sweet Unknown
by kairi's friend
Summary: The Unknown is a mysterious place where long-forgotten stories are revealed to those who travel through. When Wirt and Gregory try to find their way home, they cross paths with Wreck-It Ralph - all of them unaware that the Beast is coming.


**Warning: Mild spoilers ahead. If you haven't seen either _Wreck-It Ralph_ or _Over the Garden Wall_ , there are a few things that might give away big moments for each. The section with the biggest spoiler is the Beast's section at the end.**

 **Hope you enjoy!**

Wirt snaps out of his thoughts. "Uh, Greg?" he says to the little boy walking beside him.

"Yeah, Wirt?" Gregory says, looking up at his half-brother with big brown eyes. He carries a frog on his head.

"W-Where are we?" The boys glance around at the striped, faceless trees.

"In the woods." Gregory's eyes grow even bigger, taking in the sight of candy cane trees, taffy vines, sugary dirt, cake rocks, and frosting ponds. "Whoa! Wirt! You didn't tell me we were going to a candy forest!"

"That's because I didn't even know there was a candy forest." Going over to a yellow-and-purple candy cane tree, he inspects it up and down. "We should be careful here. We don't know if it's edible or - Greg!"

The little boy turns around, pink frosting smeared on the lower half of his face and a cake rock in his hands. "Wirt, you should try this. It's chocolate!" He holds out the rock.

Facepalming, the older boy says, "Greg, put that down."

"Okay." Gregory picks up a Pocky twig, holds it out to his frog now sitting by the green frosting pond. "Want some, Doctor President?"

The frog croaks.

"Okay. More for me." Scooping the frog up under one arm, Gregory pads after his brother, who paces at the base of the tree.

"It doesn't make sense," he mutters to himself. "Trees made out of sweets and desserts...th-there has to be some explanation for all this."

"Maybe you can ask Beatrice when she comes back."

Wirt frowns. "No, Greg, I'm not going to do that."

"Why not?" The six-year-old takes another bite out of his cake rock.

With a sigh, Wirt plops onto a fallen candy cane tree, elbows on knees, chin in hands. "We can figure this out without Beatrice." A sliver of guilt pierces his heart that he cannot even tell his own brother - _half-brother_ , he reminds himself - that their bluebird friend, Beatrice, had lied to them and tried to hand them over to Adelaide the old witch.

"Why don't you just ask that big man over there for help?"

"What big-" Wirt follows the little boy's pointed finger and sees a giant dressed like a hobo and carrying two necklaces: one made of gold and tied with a blue silk ribbon, the other a sugar cookie heart with frosting and candies and tied with pink sugar ribbon. "Greg," he whispers, getting to his feet. "Stay here."

"What are you gonna do?" Gregory asks relatively loud.

The high-schooler winces at his brother's volume. "Just, keep quiet and stay right here. I'll be back." Pulling his blue nurse's coat tighter around him and adjusting the red hat atop his head, he takes a deep breath and steps toward the giant.

Even from this distance, the giant looks depressed. Wirt's stomach flip flops, knots, wrings itself out as he draws closer and closer to the man trudging through the candy forest - partly from the nerves, but also because of a smell that seems to emanate from the giant and gets stronger with every step closer to him. When he is a few yards away, Wirt clears his throat and calls out, "Uh, hello? Excuse me?"

The giant turns around and looks around before noticing Wirt standing before him. "Oh, hey," he says dejectedly, adjusting his red overalls.

Wirt's hands feel clammy. If Beatrice were here, she would know what to say...No, he can do this without that bird's help. "Uh, I-I was just wondering if...if you, uh..." He rubs the back of his neck.

"If what?"

"If y-you...knew the way out of these woods?"

"Uh, sure." The giant points a meaty finger towards a rainbow in the distance. "Just go that way until you get to that rainbow ramp, climb up it, and you'll be back in the rest of the arcade."

"Arcade? Nonono, I - that is," he is quick to add, "my brother and I are just trying to find our way home. We've had enough adventures in the Unknown, and we just want to get home."

"The Unknown?" Sitting himself on the ground, the giant says, "Kid, I think you're confusing this game with another one."

"Game?" Gregory says, running up to them, much to Wirt's dismay. "I love games! Which one are we playing?"

"We're playing the Way-to-Go-Genius game," Wirt mutters. Gregory shushes him, and he shushes back.

It takes a moment for it to register in the giant's head before saying, "You two aren't from around here, are you?"

"No, sir," the older boy continues. "We just got lost wandering through the forest of Unknown and just want to get home."

"We were following a bluebird," Gregory pipes up, "but then we found a school, a party, an inn with lots of food, and a mean ol' witch, but Wirt saved us!"

"Who's Wirt?"

Sighing, the red-capped boy places a hand on his chest. "I'm Wirt. This is Gregory, and we-"

"And this is my frog!" The younger child holds out the green frog. "His name today is Candy!"

The giant man frowns. "I don't think you wanna name your frog that, kid."

"Why not?"

"Because I know someone named Candy who isn't very nice."

"Oh." Gregory sits down next to the man. "What's your name, mister?"

"Wreck-It Ralph," he says glumly, chin in his hand.

"And I thought Quincy Endicott was a strange name," Wirt mutters under his breath.

"Why are you so sad, Mister Ralph?" Gregory asks.

The frog croaks, staring up at the huge man.

Ralph sighs, stares at the ground. "I was trying to be a hero, but I don't feel that good."

"What happened?" Wirt asks, clasping his hands together under his blue nurse's coat.

"Well, I met someone who's a glitch, and all she wanted was to race." His face falls even more. "But King Candy said that if she raced, the game would be unplugged, and she can't leave the game because she's a glitch."

"I have a race car at home!" Gregory says. "It's blue."

"What do you mean," Wirt says, "she's a glitch?"

Ralph gives the older boy a look. "You don't know what a glitch is?"

"Um...well, we don't have glitches where we're from."

"Really?" Gregory blurts out. "I thought you said your tape recorder wasn't working because-"

"Not now, Greg." He waves his hand at his little brother to shush him.

Ralph considers the two boys for a moment. "A glitch is someone that isn't part of the game, that the programmers never..." He clears his throat and blinks rapidly. "That's basically a misfit."

Wirt frowns. "Wow, that stinks." He sits on a pink-and-white log opposite Ralph. "I used to feel like that at home, especially after Jason Funderberker stole Sarah away from me." His stomach knots. "Everything went wrong that night, and I never felt more like a ship lost on a stormy sea, with no star to guide my way over the soaring crests, a storm of sadness hovering over like-" He glances up to see Ralph, Gregory, and the frog staring at him. Wirt groans, covers his face with his hands. He was reciting poetry again.

"If your friend's a glitch," Gregory says, scratching his head in thought, "can't she just make friends, and she won't be a glitch anymore?"

"It doesn't work like that," Ralph tells him. "No one can stop being a glitch, and none of the other racers like her." His eyes glaze over. "That poor kid."

"What if she becomes a racer?" the little boy says, a bright, innocent smile on his face. "If she's a racer, then she'll fit in and not be a glitch anymore."

The giant, smelly man shakes his head. "It doesn't work like that, pint-size. She can't be a racer, or else the game'll be unplugged and she'll be stuck here to die."

"Then don't unplug the game."

The frog croaks.

"You're right, Fixer Frog." Gregory picks up the frog and holds him up Simba-style. "You can fix any problem if you put your mind to it. There's always a way to make everything better."

Ralph does not look too sure. He sighs again, stares at the sugary dirt.

Changing the subject, Wirt points to the medals. "What are those you got there?"

"Oh, uh, this one I got from a game called Hero's Duty," Ralph says, holding up the gold one on the blue ribbon. He regards it with a bored expression - but when he holds up the cookie necklace, he stares forlornly at it. "Vanellope gave me this one." He curls his fingers around it. "She wanted so badly to race, she wouldn't even listen to me when I tried to warn her about being unplugged."

"Hmm. Is there a way she can race without someone unplugging the game?" Wirt wonders.

Ralph shrugs. "Candy said if the gamers saw her glitching, they would think the game is broken. And then they would unplug the game."

"Well, there you go." Wirt smiles and holds his hands out as if the answer were clear as day. "She can race as long as the people playing the game can't see her glitch."

"Yeah!" Gregory agrees. "I can ask Beatrice to make your friend invisible! I still have a wish!"

Wirt facepalms. "Greg, she can't grant wishes. She's not magical. And she said she owed us a favor, not a wish."

"Thanks, kid," Ralph says, offering the faintest of smiles to the little boy. "Right now, I wish I could be invisible." He runs a hand through his messy brown hair.

The six-year-old laughs. "That would look funny when you put the necklaces on."

"Oh, right." He looks down at the medals in his hand. "I was gonna wear the gold medal around my neck when I went home, to show that I could be a hero."

"Wirt's a hero," Gregory chirps. "He saved us from Adelaide the witch lady and led us to this forest."

The high school-aged boy chuckles nervously, fiddles with his fingers. "Yeah, somehow we got even more lost in the woods. I still don't know how to get home." He looks up at the giant. "How are you getting home?"

"Yeah! I wanna see your home, too!"

The frog croaks.

"I just hop on a train to get back to Game Central Station, then I hop on another one to get back to my game."

Wirt frowns. "I don't think that's gonna help us much. Let's just say, we had a bad experience with a train."

"We did?" Gregory says, hugging the frog to his chest. "Was this before or after we went into the cemetery?"

Ralph frowns. "Whoa, kid, that doesn't sound like a safe game. Be careful, alright? You die outside your game, you don't regenerate."

Faint singing comes from somewhere deep in the forest, along with the muffled sound of an ax chopping. "We should probably go," Wirt says, standing up and smoothing his coat out. "We don't want to run into that creepy woodsman again."

"Woodsman?" Ralph glances around the candy cane woods. "There's no woodsman in this game. Just racers, cops, and a kooky king."

"Mmm, cookies," Gregory says, moving his frog under one arm and rubbing his belly with his other hand. He points at the cookie medal. "Are you gonna eat that?"

"Well, it was nice meeting you, Wreck-It Ralph. Come on, Gregory." He takes off down a golden sugar path.

"Okay." The little boy waves at the big man. "Bye, wrecking guy! Tell your friend good luck racing!"

"Bye, guys." Ralph waves at them until they are out of sight. Lowering his hand, he ponders over what those two said. He knows Vanellope always wanted to race - but that pillow pants jerk had a point about being trapped in the game. As he makes his way toward the rainbow bridge that will lead him to the tram to Game Central Station, he wonders if maybe there is a way for his little raven-haired friend to race after all. But how would the others treat her if she did that?

How would the others in his own game treat him after he comes home with the medal? He knows he has been gone all day, but no one hardly plays their game anymore. It should be alright...right?

* * *

"I can't believe you wanted to take that guy's medal," Wirt snaps as the two continue through the forest.

"He wasn't eating it, so I thought he wasn't hungry," Gregory replies.

The older boy sighs. "Never mind. We just need to focus on getting home."

They walk in silence for a few seconds before Gregory asks, "Why didn't you wanna take the train?"

Wirt tenses when he remembers the blinding light rapidly approaching them. "I just didn't want to, okay? Stop asking so many questions."

"Okay...Hey, Wirt?"

He groans, rubs his eyes.

"Did you know that if you plant a candy cane in the ground, it becomes a candy tree?" The younger child digs into his pants pocket and pulls out a rock with a face painted on it. "That's a rock fact."

"Greg, there's no such - Wait." He holds an arm out for them both to stop. He sniffs the fresh air and squints at the brown trees with strange face-like holes around them. "How did we get out of that candy forest so fast?"

"Aw, nuts," the little boy says. "I think I left my chocolate stick back there. Let's go get it." He turns around.

"No!" Wirt grabs his brother's shoulder and pulls him back. "We're not going back there. We have to keep going to find our way home."

"That makes sense." They continue walking further into the Unknown. "You always have a good plan, Wirt. Right, Wreck-It Roger?" He smiles at the frog hopping along next to him.

The frog croaks.

"We'll follow you, Wirt. Wherever you-" He stops when he feels something drop onto his hand. "Hey, it's raining."

"Great," Wirt mutters under his breath, pulling the coat tighter around him. He turns onto a path going uphill.

Gregory huffs a few times before asking, "What are we doing?"

"We're walking, Greg."

"But where?"

"A place to wait out this rain."

"But Wirt..." Gregory has to pause to catch his breath. "Shouldn't we wait for Beatrice?"

Wirt closes his eyes and presses on. He does not need that two-timing bird to help them find their way back.

* * *

A dark shadow lurks among the candy cane trees. He did not know that the Unknown extended into this sickly sweet sugar land. Someone in this area must either start to be feeling very lost or already have succumbed to the soil of the earth. Yet, there are no faces in the candy trees he passes by. Gliding among the trees, he starts humming his song. "Come, wayward souls, who wander through the darkness. There is a light for the lost and the meek..." He recoils when he detects a foul stench. Did someone bathe themselves in garbage?

Up ahead, he sees a man nine feet tall trudging through the forest. The shadow flies up behind the man, but the man (who happens to be the source of the pungent scent) did not even notice. He dares fly around and view the dirty man's face - the giant looks so forlorn and hopeless that he does not even notice the shadow creature right in front of him.

"What luck!" he says to himself as he watches the smelly fellow wander through the forest. "He is almost completely lost. He will make a fine addition to my forest." But when he tries to float closer to stop the huge man in his tracks and entangle him in Edelwood branches, he almost gags at the smell and retreats back. It saddens him to see such a trophy walk away like that, but if that man is as forlorn as he seems, then the shadowy Beast has nothing to worry about. "I will just have that Woodsman take care of the odor before I can add him to my collection. He seems like he would burn nicely in the Dark Lantern..." He continues through the forest.

Pretty soon, the trees start to lose their bright colors and glossy sheen in place of dull brown and rough bark with eye-like holes in them. He chuckles, low and dark. "Well, well. The Unknown truly is full of surprises."

"What are we doing?" he hears a child's voice say.

The Beast perks up. Those two boys. The ones that escaped from him outside the tavern. He swiftly glides over the ground in the direction of the voices.

"Shouldn't we wait for Beatrice?" the younger child asks.

"I don't need Beatrice," the older boy says - though the worried look on his face reveals otherwise.

 _That's it, boy_ , the Beast thinks, curling his fingers around an old tree trunk and spying on the brothers. _Become more lost. Become more hopeless._

A tree falls up ahead. He turns his glowing eyes in that direction. He nearly growls when he sees that Woodsman standing off a bit from the tree. The boys spot the Woodsman and try to run away - but that foolish Woodsman grabs the older boy's arm, shouting, "Stop! Listen! The Beast knows your presence! Ready to claim you for his dark forest!"

If that Woodsman does not hold his tongue, the Beast will use _him_ for oil. Thankfully, the older child does not heed the warning and knocks back the Woodsman, fleeing with his brother further into the Unknown. Mustering himself up to full height, the Beast comes up behind the Woodsman.

"Boys, heed my warning! Beware the Beast!"

"Woodsman!" the Beast snarls. "We should talk."

The old man glares at the shadow. "You leave those boys alone! They have nothing to do with you!"

"On the contrary, those boys have everything to do with the Unknown forest."

The Woodsman huffs, holding the Dark Lantern tight in his hand as he walks away.

"If you will not let me have the boys, there is another that-"

"Forget it!" the elderly man snaps, pointing his ax at the Beast. "I have no interest in bringing you any more children!"

"Oh, but this one isn't a child. And you do not even need the Lantern or your ax."

The Beast nearly grins to himself when the Woodsman stops and stares at him. "What do you mean?"

As he explains the simple task of finding the giant and making him smell...more tolerable, he leads the human into the candy forest. But no matter how hard he searches, the big man is gone. All that is there is a ditch in the pink frosting and vines that giggle at his impatience. "No! Where did he go?"

The Woodsman smirks. "Another one got away from you, huh? Without my help, too."

"You watch your tongue, Woodsman. Or do you want me to leave your daughter without any help at all?"

His smile drops, and he stares sadly at the Lantern. His poor daughter...trapped in the Dark Lantern. With a sign, he says, "I'll keep chopping up more trees." He goes over to the nearest candy cane tree and lifts his ax.

"Stop, Woodsman! What are you doing?"

"I thought she might like something sweet rather than all those Edelwood trees I keep grinding into oil. There aren't any more Edelwoods in the Unknown."

 _You won't let me make more._ "I will take care of the matter with the Edelwood to help you keep the Lantern lit - but no other tree may be used. Especially not these coniferous cavities." He hurries away from the sugary forest in disgust, the grumbling Woodsman trailing behind. The Beast just needs to keep the old man occupied until he can turn the two boys and that odorous giant of a man into Edelwood trees.


End file.
